DIY Eco-friendly Duster Refills for Only 50 Cents Each!

The last year or so, I've been in a serious funk.  I stopped doing a lot of the stuff I loved, had record amounts of insomnia, and totally backslid on all of my cooking and cleaning efforts, let alone cooking healthy and cleaning green.

Didn't nobody have time for that!

But I'm on a new medication, and it's a new year, and I can feel the fog lifting again.  What I'm realizing?  I am fat and my house is a MESS.  Time to get back to business.  First order of business - dusting.

I have come to realize that if I don't dust, no one will.  It's so freaking gross, you guys.  Let's not forget to add in that I live in the desert, so things are naturally pretty dusty as it is.  You add in only the most basic of housecleaning for almost a year and well... it's nasty.  I'm just keeping it real here.

I personally have a teensy Swiffer Duster addiction.  The problem is, when your house is really dusty, you go through them pretty fast.  They are not cheap, and they definitely are not good for the environment.  I needed to come up with an alternative, and fast!  I know that a lot of people swear by feather dusters, but I've tried several different kinds and just don't care for them.  I prefer knowing I'm tossing out the dust when I'm done cleaning.  Sure I could use a cleaning rag, but then I have to actually touch the dirt (ick, gag) more than I'd like.

Solution?

I picked up some microfiber cleaning towels in the automotive section of my local Dollar Tree.  They are a pretty good size, and you get two to a package. They came in neon green and blue.  I opted for the more obnoxious color, seeing as that's how I roll.

You're also going to need the handle from your Swiffer Duster.

Take one of the towels and cut it into quarters, keeping the finished seams on the bottom.

Cut the finished seams from the sides, but leave the one at the bottom. That will make it easier to put the finished duster on the handle. Stack all of the pieces together.

Lay the handle in the middle of the stacked and with a fine tipped marker (I used a green Sharpie to coordinate with my cloths) make a dotted line around the handle.  Pin the layers together.

Starting at the top of the "u" shape, stitch straight down the center line.  Be sure to backstitch at the beginning and end to secure.  Then, sew the "u" shape, also being sure to backstitch at the beginning and end.

Pull out your pins and even up the sides.  I trimmed about an inch off the end and rounded the corners too.

Make cuts along the sides, about 3/4" apart and stopping 1/2" from your stitching.

Slide the handle into the layers and give it a good shake to separate the layers.  I'm going to warn you though - this step is MESSY.  You will have little balls of whatever color you chose fluff all over the place!

But think of how much money you're going to save on refills, and how many little fluffy bits of paper and fibers you're going to keep out of the landfill, and give yourself a pat on the back.

These took about five minutes each, from start to finish, and I made six, for a grand total of $3.00 and some thread. Not too shabby!

Seasons

I feel like living in Phoenix has really skewed my idea of what months happen in which seasons.  This is how I think of the year:

November:  Fall
December - January:  Winter (and I use the term super loosely) a.k.a. late fall
February - March:  Spring
April:  Late Spring/Early Summer, depending on the weather that year
May - October:  Summer

That's right; to me, summer lasts a full six months out of the year.  Some people may disagree, but I feel like when it gets over 95 degrees it is safe to say that Summer has arrived.

Have I ever mentioned how much I loathe summer?  You can't do anything.  It's too hot!  I'm hot all the time as it is, but once it gets over 90 I start to really suffer.  I feel like I can never cool down.  I don't want to leave the house because at least when you're inside the air conditioning makes it bearable.  You could walk around in your underwear all day and it still wouldn't be cool enough.

I feel like I suffer from reverse seasonal affective disorder, and my doctor seems to agree.  Last summer my anxiety/depression was so bad that I gained thirty five pounds over that horrible six month period.  How much did I gain over the holidays?  NONE.

That's not normal.

Once again I picked a word for One Little Word.  This year my word is

I have spent so much of the past year and a half thinking to myself, "Oh, I really should do ____!" only to stay sitting on the couch and not doing anything at all.  I let my blog go, I didn't keep up on my scrapbooking, I cooked minimally, I spot cleaned my house and only when absolutely necessary, and I stopped taking care of myself, really.  Bless my husband, he's been so good and so patient with all my slacking off.  He cooks and he cleans and he is super involved with being a parent.  I'm very lucky.

I do realize that it needs to stop though.  That's where my word comes in.  When I catch myself saying, Oh, I really should do ____!" I'm going to try to actually do that thing if I can.  So, if I'm sitting around doing nothing and I think, oh, I should go work on my Project Life a bit, instead of sitting there and playing another round of Candy Crush or checking Instagram again, I'm going to get up and do it.  Instead of thinking, oh, I should start dinner soon, I need to get up and start chopping stuff instead of procrastinating for so long we end up getting a pizza.

I've been putting this into effect too.  I've cleaned more this month than I did in the last three.  I hand embroidered six dishtowels for a friend's bridal shower gift instead of slacking off and buying something lame at the last minute.  When I had fifteen minutes to kill between a trip to Target and school pickup, I stopped at home to grab some stuff out of the garage to take to Goodwill instead of just spending that time hanging out in the school parking lot and playing on my phone.

I really want to be more productive this year, and in order to do that I need to break some of the bad habits I've developed.  Hopefully I can get into some sort of routine before the weather gets too hot and that will combat the issues I have during that time of year.  Of course, it's like 80 degrees here already, so I'm racing against the clock.

Man, I hate summer.

Happy 2013!

Even though it is still looking a lot like Christmas around here (the 12th day of Christmas is Epiphany, January 6th so the decorations stay up until then), in my head, I'm gearing up for a new year.  We have no wild plans tonight.  We're just hanging out at home, probably watching the third Back To The Future installment.  ;)  The boy is really into that time machine car lately!

I'm once again not making resolutions.  Resolutions tend to imply that you find major fault with yourself and need an overhaul.  Have you ever noticed that?  Instead, I like to set goals.  First of all, stick with the diet from the nutritionist.  I'm down seven pounds in two weeks in spite of the three I put back on over Christmas, which is pretty darn good if you ask me!  Not too many people come out this side of the holiday season that much lighter.

Two - I'd like to garden again this year.  Last year I was way too tired and pregnant to even consider digging in the dirt, but this year there's no excuse!  Since planting season starts in January where I live, it's time to get the ball rolling here.

Three - Project Life!  I'm getting back on the wagon. I only made it to the end of April for 2012. At first I was thinking that I failed because I didn't do all 52 weeks, but you know what?  That's four months of our lives that I documented that would not have been documented otherwise.  How can I consider that a failure? I'm going to try again this year and we'll see how it goes.  To celebrate?

New printables!

You know the drill - you must be a fan of my Facebook page to gain access to this PDF.  I use Scribd to host my files, because it's free and it's easy for me to use.  I make these mainly for my own use, but since I spend so much time on them I figured "Hey, why not share?"  When you click the link to access them, Facebook will occasionally ask you to use Facebook Connect to access Scribd.  I HAVE NO CONTROL OVER THIS.  I have been using FBC since it was introduced with no problem, but I understand that some people are against it for whatever reason.  You always have the option of copying and pasting the URL into a new window/tab to avoid the FBC thing.

Please, please, please do not pin these to Pinterest directly from Scribd.  If you would pin them from here, I would appreciate it so much!  Also, this will be the 12th printable I've uploaded to share.  My work has been downloaded literally thousands of times, but I haven't even hit 200 followers on Google.  If you could take a minute to hit the Google thingie over on the right sidebar if you have ever downloaded one of my freebies, or liked one of my recipes, or heck, even if I just entertained you on a bad day!  I'd love that  number to go up a little for the new year.  Thanks!  :)

Have a great and safe New Year!

Do Work

I think, in the last two days I've done more than I have in the past two weeks.  Maybe even the past month!  It's no secret that this pregnancy has kicked my behind as far as fatigue goes.  I was tired to the point of exhaustion pretty much the entire first half, and then it came back the last few months.  I have some good days where I feel like I can actually do stuff, but then I inevitably pay for it the next day in the form of a stiff, sore body, swollen hands, and of course, being really tired.

It kinda sucks. 

I feel like such a lazy slug!  I'm thankful that I don't have one of those husbands who feels his only contribution to our household is to bring home a paycheck.  Seriously, if he thought his work day ended when he came home, but saw no problem with mine being 24 hours, I wouldn't have married the guy.  He's been so good and picking up the slack where I haven't been able too.  He has no clean underwear?  He won't say a word - he'll just throw a load in the wash.  I'm too tired to cook?  No sweat - he'll whip something together or go grab us a pizza.  He understands that I'm having a hard time right now, and that marriage is a partnership - sometimes you give, sometimes you take, but you should always try to support.  I love him for that.

I have 22 days (!!!) until my c-section is scheduled, and only fourteen until my due date.  This means I need to get my behind in gear and try to get this house in some semblance of order.  I still haven't installed the car seat, or packed a hospital bag.  I still need to go buy baby bottles and a few other last minute items.  The list seems huge for the small amount of days left, but at the same time, I find myself not really worried about it.  I'm doing what I can, asking for help with what I can't, and if something doesn't get done, oh well.

Is that Zen or apathetic?  Can't tell.

One of the things I definitely wanted to get done before I have this baby is to make a bunch of meals to freeze.  When Bubba was born, we were in an apartment and had a teeny freezer, so this really wasn't much of an option.  We also had no money to buy a stand alone freezer, and even if we did, we had nowhere to put it.  As a result, no planning or prep for our meals after baby was done and we ate fast food a LOT.  Like, a disgusting amount a LOT.  I'm sure we wasted a ton of money too.  

I don't want to do that again.  I want to have homemade meals, at least most of the time.  Things that I made so that even though they may not be the most nutritious items, they're better than their processed foods counterparts.  My friend Suzy gave me her old freezer since her daughter is off to college and it wasn't really needed anymore.  I've been loving having it, but I haven't been using it to it's full potential. 

Well, the time has come.  Friday while I was doing laundry (all of it!  Nine loads and all dried on the clothesline!  Lots of bending and stretching and carrying and walking) I worked on a meal plan and a grocery list.  Since my grocery list document is dated, I was able to tell that it's been almost a whole year since I've done this.  YIKES.  I pulled my grocery circulars, went through what was on sale, then went through the list of freezer meals I wanted to try (pulled from Pinterest and my own files) to see what matched up.  Then I planned my meals for this week using those recipes.  The idea is that I will make the meal, but double or triple it so I have one for dinner and one or two for later.  Pretty clever, huh?

Yesterday we spent all day shopping and running errands.  There was a Target run in there, as well as a stop at Old Navy for some cheap flip flops to wear in the hospital shower.  We grabbed dinner before stopping for another paint sample from Home Depot.  We stopped to check out a children's consignment store because I still haven't found a going home outfit for Kelly, but they were closed.  We hit Joann for a replacement reusable cup for my husband because he left his on top of the car.  We were all over the place! Finally, after all that, we hit the grocery store where I discovered that I had forgotten my circulars at home so I wasn't going to be able to get all the stuff I price matched for.  PHOOEY!  We grabbed what was not on my price matching list and anything for which they had a better price anyway (one of the perks of listing the prices at all the competitors in one place) and called it good.  I figure I'll get the rest of the stuff later.

Bubba passed out in the car on the way home and since it was a good two or three hours earlier than when he normally goes to sleep, we were thinking GREAT.  Now he'll be up all night!  Nope.  He slept until 12:30 today!  I guess all the errands wore him out too, even though he got to sit in a cart for most of them.  Lucky.

Me?  I was awake.  Very awake.  So was my husband.  I decided to take advantage of the time by prepping the marinade for one of my meals.  I was doing Cilantro Lime Chicken (recipe here) and figured that instead of prepping one batch of marinade, I'd do four.  We'd eat one for dinner and have three stashed for after the baby arrives.  I was in a lot of pain by this point after two solid days of activity so my husband volunteered to help.  We put ingredients in Ziploc bags and added frozen chicken (which I bought in bags in the freezer section) to them before sealing.  The idea is that you pull one out the night before, then as they thaw in the fridge they chicken will marinate at the same time.  All we have to do is add some rice (which can also be made ahead of time and frozen) and a veggie, and dinner will be done in less time than it takes to order a pizza!

After we finished those, we divvied up a package of bacon.  Have you noticed how expensive bacon has gotten lately?  Especially if you like to use the good stuff.  It's crazy!  Also, a lot of recipes call for just a few slices.  What do you do with the rest?  You can't keep freezing and refreezing it.  If you cook it all up, then it's kind of wasteful, not to mention eating that much bacon is probably not good for you.

So, we opened the package of the lovely, thick cut Applewood Smoked bacon that we bought and separated  it.  I cut strips of parchment paper and folded them in half lengthwise.  We then tucked three slices into the fold, and folded the bacon/paper in half crosswise.  I took these little packages and tucked them inside another labeled Ziploc bag.  Now when I want to make something with a little bit of bacon, I can just pull out one of the little paper bundles and use what I need, rather than getting stuck with a whole package of bacon!  The parchment paper keeps them from freezing to each other so it's super simple.

After we finished with that, I looked at the clock and it was 2 am.  Now, I'm naturally a night owl, and an insomniac on top of that.  I also happened to have married a night owl who also insists he's rarely ever tired. Now you know why my kid is up until one or two am and sleeps until after noon!  It's in his genes!

Anyway, I asked him if he was up to doing one more meal prep thing.  He said all he had planned was to play video games, so sure, why not?  (I think he was excited at the prospect of good food with less work later on.)  I pulled out the packages of ground turkey that we bought and we got to work making meatballs.

152 meatballs, to be exact!

By just throwing all the ingredients into the KitchenAid, and then working together to scoop and shape the meatballs, we were able to make four batches of partially cooked turkey meatballs in record time!  After they cooled I divided them up into more labeled Ziploc bags (seriously - label  EVERYTHING if you're going to do this!) and popped them into the freezer.

I ended up with three bags containing about fifty meatballs each.  That sounds like a lot, but they're small meatballs and the soup I make with them usually lasts a few meals.  Since making the meatballs is about 2/3 of the work involved in this soup, we saved ourselves a ton of work somewhere down the line!

Later this week I plan to make some Baked Ziti to freeze, as well as frozen pizza dough and some chocolate chip cookie dough.  I may even try to get some bread dough in there so we can stop buying bread again.  We'll have to see how I'm feeling though, as today my body is paying for all the work of the past two days.

Totally worth it though.  :)

February Mish Mash

I know there are probably a lot of blog posts being written today that start with something along the lines of "I can't believe it's February already!!!"  I can.  January seemed really long to me for some reason, and I'm not sure why.  Since it is a new month though, it's time to revisit my goals for January and establish new ones for February.

Goal one - Take better care of myself

I went to Lush and bought myself some pretty smelling soaps.  I also replaced the crappy conditioner I was using with a better one and a conditioning treatment.  I can already see a difference in my hair!  I definitely shaved my legs more than twice and even used a self tanner a few times.  The polish on my nails is all chippy though.  Dang.

Goal two - Floss EVERY DAY.

Big fat FAIL.  I started off strong the first week and a half.  It was pretty cool because this time my gums only bled the first three days, not for a week and a half like last time I tried this.  Then I got sick, and all that flossing went by the wayside.  I never took it up again.  Why must this be so hard for me???

Goal three - Take off eye makeup before bed.

Again, this goal started out strong.  I bought some makeup remover wipes and I'd do it while I was watching television at night.  I missed a few nights, but I think I got it off more nights than I missed.  I need to work harder on this.

Goal four - Get organized!

I did really well on this.  I cleaned  out the bathroom medicine cabinets when I switched the  bathrooms, and I also cleaned out and organized under the bathroom sinks.  The pantry got an overhaul and cleaning out too.  It is no longer scary and I no longer drop crap on my head when I look for stuff.  It's nice!

Goal five - Eat more stuff that's good for me

I've definitely been doing better on this one.  My food aversions seem to have gone away for the most part.  I'm eating more regular food at home and have added in a lot of fruits and veggies that I was missing before. I can't even tell you how many clementines I've had!  I do think I need to start eating bananas (gross) though, 

because I've been waking up with my calves feeling very tight and I think that means my old friend Charley Horse may be ready to start making his visits soon.

Here are my goals for February:

Goal one - Participate in the February Photo A Day Challenge.

All through January I kept seeing this little prompt pop up on Facebook and Twitter, but I ignored it at first.  After a while though, I thought it looked fun how people were putting their own interpretations on the prompts for each day.  I decided I'd try it for February.  At the very least it will help me to have more photos in my Project Life album, right?  Details here.

 Here's my photo for day one.

Don't worry - I don't plan on posting them each day.  I may just do it once a week.  I will be doing them all with Instagram.  You can follow me there - my name is splendidmissm.

Goal two - Work on the before bed routine for myself

This includes the flossing and makeup removal things.

Goal three - Clean out the misc. cupboard in the kitchen and swap it with the pots and pans cupboard.  I think they'll work better this way.  Also, we do NOT need that George Foreman grill anymore.  We haven't used it once since we moved in here!

Goal four - Finish the December Daily.  Really.  Get some printer ink and another package of photo paper and just do it already!

Also I wanted to note ...

I was 19 weeks on Sunday.  I started to feel the little baby flutter movements near the end of week 17.  By the end of last week, the kicks were more definite and would happen in little groups.  Last night, this baby was kicking hard enough that I could see it from the outside.  My husband saw it too.  She's just growing so fast in there!  I checked my blog archives (which is yet another reason why blogging is awesome) and I didn't see Bubba move until 23 weeks.  Crazy!

Last year I posted this photo of a very simple garland I made.  This year, I was too lazy to decorate for Valentine's day.  However, I would like to offer you those vintage Valentine printables again in case you'd like to make one for yourself.  Just "Like" my Facebook page to access the free downloads!

Project Life

My friend Lindsay has been posting on her blog, Twitter and Facebook about Project Life lately.  I knew what it was - heck, anyone who has ever been a serious scrapbooker knows what it is.  Basically, it's a simplified way of documenting your every day life, as a way of leaving a record.  Rather than your kids and grandkids being left photo albums full of pictures of people that barely have names, let alone stories about who they were, they'll be able to really get a feel for who you are and how things are now.  I mean, I know I'm not the only one who has looked at old black and white photos of long gone relatives and wondered about them as people, am I right?

Sure, there's traditional scrapbooking.  That will always be my first love.  The thing is, since Bubba's been born, I haven't really done a whole lot of it.  I have photos that I can go back and add to his album, but the truth is that with time, a lot of the details in my memory has been lost.  That makes me sad.  

With Project Life, every thing is simplified.  There's no pressure to come up with unique layouts and titles.  You can put multiple random photos on one page.  There is no matching papers or searching for the perfect embellishments.  You're simply documenting your life.

Of course, they sell kits for this.  You can get them on Becky Higgin's website.  They have fancy page protectors and pre-printed cards on which you can write your journal entries that are all nice and color coordinated.  All you have to do is print your photos, write out your journaling, and slide everything into it's own little pocket in the fancy divided page protector.  Wham, bam, DONE.  

The thing is, it's not cheap.  You start adding up the cost of those cute little cards and all those nifty divided page protectors,  and you're going to be spending QUITE a bit of money by the time the year is through.  Some people have that sort of disposable income, but unfortunately with a baby on the way, I'm not one of them.  They do offer a digital version of the kits as well, with downloadable templates that you can use over and over again, as well as files for the different journal cards.  This is considerably cheaper - until you factor in printing out those layouts.  My printer at home cannot print 12" x 12", so I'd have to send them out.  Again, by the end of the year, this will get really expensive.  

So what's a girl to do?

Well, if she's like me, she already has a crapload of paper in her house.  She has adhesive.  She has a corner rounder, a color printer, a date stamp, and a pen.  She has a Walgreens a few blocks up the road that offers 19 cent prints that will be ready in about an hour.  AND - she has Photoshop.  She is creative and cheap, and will find a way to do Project Life for a fraction of the cost.  After all, it's about documenting the memories, not about buying stuff!

The first thing I did was to make my own cute little journaling cards.  I printed some out on white cardstock, and some out on kraft colored cardstock.

Then I cut them apart.  I stuck them in a little tin on top of my desk so that when I'm doing this, all I have to do is reach in there and grab one.  I also cut rectangles of the same size from plain white cardstock to use for the same purpose.  I figure I can embellish those with bits of patterned papers from my scrap pile to jazz them up a bit.

You like?  Visit my Facebook page and click LIKE if you haven't already to access the links for the free download so you can print your own.  I'll post more in the next few days.

Last week, when I decided to do this, I sent some photos to be printed at Walgreens.  Some I left 4" x 6", and some I made 3" x 4".  The beauty of a 3" x 4" is that you can put two on a standard 4" x 6" canvas using photo editing software, and get two prints for the price of one!  While I was working in Photo Shop I also went ahead and typed up some little titles to go with some of the photos and sent those to be printed too.

Why those two sizes that I mentioned?  Well, that's part of what makes Project Life so simple:

It's like a formula.  Each page follows the same basic design, with tweaks here and there to make things fit.  There's no trying to figure out how things will be placed on each page - that part is pretty much done for you.  As you can see, I took some liberties with that basic formula in a few places, such as filling in those blank spots on the race car layout with patterned paper because I didn't have enough photos.  I also used a combination of my pre-printed journal cards along with plain cardstock cards that I embellished with patterned papers.  I did add a couple of simple embellishments to some of the pages just for fun, but it wasn't anything special or that took a lot of time.

I did all four of these layouts in under an hour.  I just trimmed a 1/8 of an inch from the top and side of each photo (so there would be a little border showing around each), rounded the corners, wrote out my journaling, and glued everything down on sheets of cardstock.  DONE.  No need for fancy page protectors or kits here!

I'm hoping I can really stick with this since it does take a lot less time, and finally get back to the business of preserving some of our family memories.  Knowing that there are so many spaces for smaller photos means I can use iPhone and Instagram pictures on these too! Thank you Lindsay for the little push in the right direction and the encouragement to do this!  I'm scrapbooking again!

FFA Friday - October 2

Confession: I'm retro posting this because I forgot to post it on Friday. WHOOPS! Here is my weigh in for this week:

I'm up a pound and a half. I am disappointed in myself! I was so hungry this week though. I ate like crap, and I ate a lot. I don't know what was up with me, but that's exactly what happened. I just kept eating crap. At least I don't have to worry about hitting a plateau due to my body thinking that I was starving myself, right?

Workouts are going well. I did notice that a couple of years of favoring my bum knee has resulted in my putting all my weight on my left leg. When I stand, all my weight rests on it. When I exercise, I tend to work it harder and it gets tired and sore first. I need to figure out how to remedy this, because it's starting to be a problem.

Another problem? All my bras are too big around. They keep sliding up! I'm sure it has less to do with me wearing the wrong size than with me having worn them through a weight gain and stretching them out. I figured out that's the same thing that happens with my jeans. I was so confused for years wondering how one size could be so big but the next size down was too small. It's because I'm stretching them out as I grow, and when I go down I need the unstretched size to fit me properly.

This week I need to be better about staying within my calories. That's the goal! This is my last week of boot camp, so I need to make it count. I'll see if I can get my trainer to take my measurements again on Thursday to see what progress I've made this month. This week I've had a few people tell me they can see how I'm thinning out, which is awesome. :)

FFA Friday - September 23

I can't believe it's already the end of September. This month is freaking flying by! Here are the results for this morning's weigh in -

WOO HOO! Down another two pounds for a total of NINE POUNDS LOST! That means I'm almost to my first mini goal of ten pounds, which is pretty darn exciting. My next goal will be 10% of my starting weight, which would be 19 lbs. lost. That would take me to 177 lbs, which is what I weighed after Bubba was born and I lost all the baby weight. Crazy, huh? At that point I'm going to have to go buy all new bras.

I was given a VERY generous gift of three more weeks of bootcamp, so along with a little gardening, that's what I did this week for exercise. Talk about a blessing!!! I will admit that I'm a dork and totally misinterpreted the pricing for boot camp. It's not $275 a month; it's $150 a month if you go two days a week. Still outside of my budget for now, but maybe in the future? We'll see.

I noticed that I'm not shuffling as bad when I jog now, and I feel like the exercises are going a bit smoother for me. It's not easy by any stretch of the imagination, just less like my joints are stiff and rusty. Tuesday I got a killer lower ab workout and they have been sore since. Those muscles don't usually get to get sore so I think they're in shock!

I've been tracking my calories in MyFitnessPal too. This week I've been HUNGRY, and hungry for bad stuff. I bought some mini ice cream sandwiches (100cal ea) and a package of Oreos (120 cal for 3) and have been fitting them into my day. I don't want to be one of those people who cuts things out completely because I've seen it time and time again - it's a recipe for failure. I can have those things, but I have to eat them in moderation and factor them into the total amount I consume, instead of in addition to what I have like before. It's all about smaller portions of those "bad" things and finding balance!

FFA Friday - September 16

Weigh in time!

Down a pound for a total of 7 lbs lost! (please ignore lovely scuff mark on toe kthx)

I tried the Bootcamp app on my phone this week. It's only 30 minutes long compared to going to class, which is an hour. The biggest difference though, I think, is that there is a REALLY short transition period between exercises. You don't get that minute to move to the next station and get into position. You get about three to five seconds if you're lucky which means NO RESTS and NO BREAKS for water or to catch your breath! There is no doubt in my mind that it's not a good workout though. I was super sweaty and beat after. :)

Also, have you ever tried to do a plank with an almost three year old doing it right next to you, mimicking every pant and grunt you make? He was also repeating all of the supportive phrases the app was saying, such as "You can do it!" "You're almost there!" "This one is FUN!!!" Yeah, it's not very easy to do exercises where you're required to concentrate on your core when you're laughing.

On Wednesday I did yard work. I made sure to watch the clock so I knew exactly how much time I spent working, as opposed to getting a drink, tending to the boy, etc. So while I spent most of the day out in the yard, I only spent three hours that could be counted as exercise. I'm trying to be as honest as possible when tracking that since it gives me extra calories and I don't want to eat too much, you know?

I'm on my way back outside to turn that bed so I can get planting. We went to Home Depot last night and I bought a bunch of seeds so I'm excited to get going!

Meal Plan Monday!

I know you've seen it on other parts of the Interwebs - blog posts written on Monday that have a list (usually with links to recipes if you're lucky!) detailing what the blogger is feeding their family for the week. Generally, I'm not that organized. HOWEVER, I did just make myself that schnazzy Household Organization Notebook, and it does have a nice tab for menu planning. Therefore, I can now do Meal Plan Monday post because the pages I printed start on Monday. This means I have to have my plan done before then so I should be able to blog about it. Before, I just sort of started my week whenever I decided to get around to meal planning, and that was if I even did it.

You all know how much I like to fall back on "winging it," right?

Will this be a regular thing? I dunno. Nothing ever is around here for long. One thing about having been blogging for as long as I have, it's easy to go back and see how my interests have shifted and changed in the past six years. I do love this about journaling!

Here's the plan for this week:

Monday - Chicken Soft Tacos with Mexican Rice

I found some pre-cooked shredded chicken in the freezer when I was cleaning it out in preparation for meal planning/grocery shopping, so I decided to use it up! I will heat this with a little chicken stock, some seasonings (I have homemade taco seasoning in the pantry and it's GOOD), maybe a little onion and cilantro... mmm. I'm going to make a whole mess of tortillas in the early part of the day. Some will get frozen for later use and some will be made into tacos for dinner.

The rice is easy - Soften a half cup of onions with a tablespoon olive oil in a heavy pot. Toss in a cup of long grain white rice and cook until toasted, stirring constantly. Puree a can (or jar, in my case) of tomatoes in a blender. Add water or chicken broth to make 2 1/2 cups. Pour into rice, stir, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until liquid is absorbed. Ta da!

A little rice, some chicken in a tortilla with a little lettuce and cheese, and there is dinner.

Tuesday - Beef, Mushroom, & Green Bean Stir-Fry over Rice Noodles.

This recipe was clipped from a magazine. I'll let you know how it is!

Wednesday - Chicken Linguine

I found this recipe on Pinterest. It says it's a Weight Watchers recipe, and since I'm trying to get the skinnies, as Mrs. Monologues says, I figured what the heck.

Thursday - Curry-Spiced Shrimp and Rice

This was also clipped from a magazine. Can I just get a WOO HOO for free magazine subscriptions???

Friday - Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas with Tortillas and Mexican Rice

Confession: Monday's meal was actually supposed to me Sunday's, which would have fallen on last week's meal plan. Unfortunately, Sunday saw us up early for a birthday party, after which no one had any energy and long naps may or may not have been taken. Making of tortillas, which is an important component of tacos, may have been forgotten because of those factors.

This means that Monday's tortilla-less dinner (Grilled Chicken with Asparagus Risotto, from here, made by my sweet husband while I slept) may have had to be eaten on Sunday. Sunday's dinner had to get pushed to Monday which means that I had two "rice and tortilla" dinners scheduled in the same week. ACK.

I'd never make it as a Taco Tuesday, Fish Friday, Meatloaf Monday kind of person, obviously. I need some variety!!! That being said though, I was thinking I should try to have Fridays be Slow Cooker days since I have knitting club at 6pm those days and I hate feeling rushed. I found this pork carnitas recipe on Pinterest (sounding like a broken record here) and it sounded like a winner. This won't be as tasty as real pork carnitas, I'm sure, but it should be okay for tacos.

Saturday - Italian Sausage and Spinach Marinara over Orecchiette

The only reason I'm using orecchiette for this is because when I served it to the boy last week he ate a TON of it. I guess he liked the shape. He kept calling them "pasta chips." If it gets him to eat, I'll take it!

The marinara sauce recipe was clipped from a magazine. It had a basic marinara recipe and then a bunch of stuff you could add to it for five different meals. True; the one I picked did happen to be served over orecchiette, but I feel like most pasta is interchangeable.

Sunday - Chipotle Plum Glazed Pork Tenderloin with quinoa and broccoli

A few months ago I found plums on sale really cheap so I bought a bunch of them to make jam. I ended up with a Chipotle Plum jam that was smoky and reminiscent of the chili-covered Mexican candies we used to eat when I was a kid. I don't know if I'm down with putting this on toast, but it's FANTASTIC on a pork roast. I just dump the little 4 oz jar onto my tenderloin, smoosh it around with a silicone basting brush, and pop it into the oven until it reaches an internal temperature of 160 degrees.

I'll serve this with a side of quinoa and some steamed broccoli. That rounds out the week!

I want to make some bread to stick in the freezer in addition to the tortillas I want to stash in there. I keep thinking about grilled cheese sandwiches for some reason lately, and for that I need bread! I read that I can just bake them until they're mostly done, then freeze them so I won't have to worry about the yeast not wanting to work like I would if I froze unbaked dough. Then, when I want a fresh loaf all I have to do is pull one out and pop it into the oven to brown.

I've been making bread using the Artisan Bread In 5 Minutes a Day method for a couple of years now, but I think I'm getting a little tired of the slightly sourdough taste. Don't get me wrong - it's really good bread, but I am ready for something new. There's a recipe for a honey white bread by Ina Garten I want to try, as well as a whole wheat one that Jaimee Rose posted. Good stuff!

I also have plans to make up a bunch of Whole Wheat Waffles this week. They freeze beautifully, and since my waffle iron makes little square waffles, it's super easy to pull them out as I need them and just pop them into the toaster for breakfast. Take that, Eggo!

Needless to say, getting back on the bandwagon for healthy eating with drastically reduced commercially processed food is going to mean more time in the kitchen this week.

Twelve of 12 - June 2011

Check it out! I actually remembered to document my twelfth this month! I'm so proud of myself. :)

1. My mom gave us these tracks for Hot Wheels-type cars. Of course, we have no clue how it goes together, but the boy doesn't seem to mind. He connected them up to his parking garage and played for hours today.

2. The reason why we hauled the tracks out - I woke up with a LOT of pain in my knee this morning. We missed Pentecost mass because I could barely walk, let alone consider kneeling. I know this sounds bad, but when you're half the age of most of your congregation, you HAVE to kneel. Those old people are judgy. (I guess that statement makes me a bit judgy too. hee hee!)

3. So, instead, I made jam. I found some great sales on berries yesterday (grocery shopping is what did that knee in, I think) and I had to use them quickly. Standing is okay because I can put all my weight on the "good" leg.

I'm really getting this process streamlined. I hardly made any mess today at all, especially when I compare to the first couple of times I did it.

4. Today marks my third day of having a green smoothie for breakfast. While I am surprised at how not gross they are, I have to say that they really really really make me crave carbs and salt something fierce. Also, although I'm drinking almost a full blender jar of pureed fruits and veggies, I'm still really hungry afterwards. Those people who tell you to snack on fruit if you're hungry are full of crap.

This is why I'm a fat kid.

5. I got the best email this morning from a friend. It said, "I don't think that I like it that when I hear about roaches, I think of you." Oh my goodness how that made me laugh! I guess most people don't talk about it if they have them, huh? I assure you though, they're JUST IN THE COMPOST HEAP!!! I swear!

We think we may have gotten rid of them though. Last week I woke up to ants on the patio. Since it would be another day and a half before the exterminator would be out, I put a homemade ant killer (1/4 cup powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons borax) out there and darned if they weren't all gone by the end of the day! The exterminator asked about it and when I told him what it was, he said that I had actually made a really effective barrier to not only ants, but roaches as well. This made the little lightbulb in my head go off.

We sprinkled borax under the pile the next time we turned it, and today when we went to turn it, there were no roaches! Just one very annoyed spider. I added to the mixture with some baking soda per my friend's email today when I resprinkled under the pile. It mentioned in the notes that using this was exceptionally cruel because it causes their stomachs to explode, but hey, they're ROACHES.

No one call PeTA on me, okay?

6. In the box with the Hot Wheel tracks were some little cars. The boy took a particular shine to this one, much to his father's delight.

7. Look! Baby pumpkin!!!

8. The zinnias have these little balls at the tops of the stems. Dare I say I may have blooms soon???

9. Why do children like playing in the dirt? This kid was SO FILTHY when he finally came inside.

10. I was on my third batch of jam when I ran out of freaking sugar!!! I was about 3/4 cup shy of what I needed to finish, so I totally became a cliche and sent my husband to borrow a cup of sugar from the neighbor. I sent along a jar of peach jam in trade though! HA! I couldn't believe how long it was taking him when he finally came back and explained one neighbor wasn't home, one only had about a half cup in their house, and he finally had to hit up someone three doors down from us!

11. Dinner, recipe courtesy of Pinterest. I am addicted SO HARD to that site. This was Lemon Garlic Spaghetti and we topped it with some grilled chicken. Very good.

12. The results of today's labor. Well, the pickles and two jars of peach jam in front of them were already on the counter, but the rest I made today. I made more StrawberryBlackberry and BlueberryLime because I sold out of those before. I also tried a new flavor today - CarrotCake. According to the recipe, if you put this on a piece of toast that has a thin layer of cream cheese on it, the taste is just like carrot cake. I haven't tried that yet, but I will say that the jam is GOOD.

I sell these, so if you want some homemade jam and you're local, hit me up! I'm saving up for a crazy blender because mine is dying a slow death, haha. Prices are as follows:

StrawberryBlackberry 4oz: $3 8oz: $5

BlueberryLime 4oz: $3 8oz: $5

PeachPreserves (I picked these peaches myself!) 4oz: $3 8oz: $5

CarrotCake 4oz: $4 8oz: $6

Piano Progress

I've been working on my piano lessons.

Not what I would call diligently though. I try to play a little bit every day. Sometimes it's only five minutes, sometimes it's closer to thirty. I'd say average is about ten. I finished the first piano book that I found at Goodwill and decided to go ahead and buy the next few in the series. While I waited for them to arrive in the mail I printed off some simple sheet music that I found online.

I've been working on Beethoven's Ode to Joy for two weeks now during some of those ten minute practice sessions. This was the first thing I played that required me to use both hands at the same time, as well as the first piece (using this term loosely, if you've ever seen a piano primer) with a sharp note. I had to Google how to play that as it had not been covered in my book yet.

Sorry about the weird camera angle. SOMEONE (coughbubbacough) hid my tripod and I can't find it anywhere. I kind of rigged it to hang off the edge of a shelf that is over the piano.

That's right, I said shelf. One of my readers kindly told me that it's not a good idea to keep your piano in front of a window, which of course is exactly where I had placed it. I moved it to an "inside" wall and hopefully I will not have to move it again, because pianos are freaking HEAVY!

I probably would have gotten this song down faster if I was better about practicing and also if I didn't get tired of hearing the same thing over and over again so fast. I would try other little things when I'd get tired of this just to keep it interesting. Now that I can get through it without messing up too bad, I'll go ahead and get back to my primers.

Weekend Recap

It feels like we had a laid back weekend, but when I think about it, we got a lot accomplished! For instance, on Saturday I had the two cutest guys wash the car.

Also, all day Friday and Saturday I worked on this:

One of my friends from playgroup had a baby shower today and I decided to go ahead and take a chance on giving her a handmade gift. I always get nervous doing that because in my head I'm scared that people will think "Oh great, she made me some junky craft" or "She's so cheap, she couldn't even be bothered to buy something from a store!" Anyone who crafts though knows this kind of thing isn't cheap! That's not even counting the time you put into your project. Luckily I know that my friend likes my work so I'm feeling pretty good about it.

Friday night I ran out of thread so I had to run to Joann to get more. Of course, that meant I had to look around, and that meant I ended up buying more fabric. I don't know what I will make with it, but I am so in love with it! I bought a pillow form, so there will be that at least.

On this quilt I did something different than I have in the past. I bought double fold bias tape quilt binding instead of making my own like I usually do. I had to Google how to use this, since it's folded differently. I have to say, I like the double fold so much better! The binding on this quilt came out so much better than any I have done before.

Today was the baby shower! I don't get to do my hair and makeup a lot these days, especially with all the yard work we've been doing lately. I really looked forward to getting to clean myself up for public viewing. HA!

The dress I'm wearing is new (to me!). I picked it up at Goodwill for $5 and it's been sitting in my closet for a couple of months. I wore it over leggings. Cute and comfy! I know I look kind of scowly in this picture, but I was thinking of one that I have of my grandmother when she was young. I look a lot like her in this shot. I should post the other photo so you can see.

Someone told me they liked my vintage/rockabilly look. I never thought about it being rockabilly. When it's not styled it is stick straight and frizzy in some areas due to damage. Add to that a makeup-less face, and I end up looking like Peppermint Pattie from the Charlie Brown Cartoons! So, hooray for skinny flat irons!

After I got home from the shower (where I totally won the game where you had to guess how big around she was) we got to work on our garden. So far we have a small raised bed that has been sown with two different kinds of pumpkins. Under my craft room window there's another longer raised bed. It's not as tall as the one for the pumpkins. That one will be for veggies. I will seed that one tomorrow morning.

The bed that's giving us issues is the one where we decided to dig directly into the ground. I was taking turns with my husband alternating the digging when all of a sudden he says OH CRAP. I came over to see and there's a plastic sprinkler line with water just pouting out of it. We shut off the water and the landscapers were able to repair it when they were here a few days later. We waited a couple of days to turn on the water so that we would be sure the contact cement would be dry. Well, we turned on the water yesterday and water starts to shoot in an arc out of another hose that's down there. That hose DEFINITELY was not leaking before, because we would have noticed the giant arc of water shooting across into the yard!

So yeah, that needs to be patched and then we can finally finish digging up that area and get planting. Yeah!